I took Monday off from school.

11/13/18

I didn’t have the best day. Mom’s sick. Adi and Reed are kinda sick. We did watch a movie, Mom, Adi, and I-but still. They were sick.

I had to write a mini-essay today. No warning or prep, just “write this today.” I should be used to it by now, but it still jiggles my nerves. At least I moderately like essay writing.

11/14/18

Blah blah blah. I don’t know what to write so I’m literally writing blah blah blah rather than the conceptual version. Blah blah blah.

We went to the library today. I browsed–read the inside cover and/or back of books with interesting titles. I checked out three books; a school book, a book of short stories by Louisa May Alcott I’ve been meaning to get and one I picked up by a publishing house I know that’s decent.

I didn’t do school on Thursday.

11/16/18

Today we went to our rental house. I had about 15 minutes of warning before we left. I had to pack all my school and stuff for a sleepover before we left.

I didn’t exactly do school at our rental house. We hung out and I couldn’t do everything because I needed internet or a notebook I had left or a computer with certain software. I decided not to do math today. If I don’t finish it by the end of the year; I have to do the work.

A man in Australia pounded a shopping cart into a man wielding a knife. The man killed one person and hurt two more before being killed by the police. Michael Rogers, the man with a shopping cart, is homeless in Melbourne. He said that he wasn’t a hero for his actions. Michael Rogers is 46.

Yes, it is true I am a teen-although I have been all this school year. (Why would that matter?) I am in fact, thirteen, but I didn’t think that would be as good. I consider it cheating if you use the same word to rhyme unless it is cleverly done.

11/5/18

Last week our cousins visited and we didn’t do school. Today I started school again. Ugg… I don’t mind school too much-but when you just had a week of vacation? You get that letdown, you know?

I had a few problems with math, but only one major one, and all of them I handled myself. Science only to fifteen minutes or so and I wrote a journal entry of last week during the rest of the period. Mom decided to call an early lunch, so I ate from eleven to twelve and did English from twelve to one.

I started a new book about the Bible; Finding Truth by Nancy Pearcey. It wasn’t outstanding, but seemed to have a good subject and wasn’t completely unfollowable. History, Bible reading, and memory were ehhh. I am reading Song of Solomon or Song of Songs-a book written by no-longer-sensible lovers. I wrote a bit more of a story for my elective and it was undeniably fun plus I made progress.

11/6/18

Okay, would be the description of my day. Some disappointments; a bad math score, my camera is starting to break, I only understood half my history, but overall it was ok.

Now, a word on a little bit of everything. Science was less fun than normal. English was a bit confusing, bible book, (a book about the Bible, biblical principles and application, etc…) was short, finished this week’s reading. History I had extra of, Art was grindwork-but by no means boring-and hard, but a new and therefore interesting project. Current events I didn’t dread unimaginably and it was easier. And now we have come to- THE END.

11/7/18

Today would be the word I would use to describe my day. “Neither good nor bad nor happy nor sad.” (In prose.)

Science was smooth-easy and interesting. I learned about lasers, they use real ones in disco balls! (The reason they don’t hurt anyone is that they are constantly moving; in case you were wondering. And yes, if they broke and stayed still; somebody might get hurt.)

11/8/18

I couldn’t seem to stop writing today. I wrote parts of my essay, edited and wrote current events and the most interesting on; wrote logo computer code.

My science experiment, as they call it, was writing pen-and-paper logo programs. I wrote HELLO WORLD, my name and a bunch of letters. It was fun, but tedious work and kept my mind of the tips of its frontal lobe.

11/9/18

I was at our rental house for the afternoon. (And evening.) I did school there, was a gofer, (I got downgraded from painter to gofer now that we are in the throes of detail work. Dramatic sigh.) and worked more on that story. (I also worked on it Monday. It doesn’t exactly have a name currently…)

My essay is finished. (Yes, I’m going to post it.) It took a longer and shorter time than I thought. I thought it would take about 45 min to an hour, (and didn’t finish it) and I thought it would take forever (it didn’t).

Afghanistan held elections again for the first time in eight years on October 20th. There were threats and violence by the Taliban. The Afghan government has tried to make agreements with the Taliban but have been refused. Voters braved the threats to wait in lines to vote. There was much violence, however, and fifty-six people died. A total of 379 people were hurt, 339 of those being on the election day. Several places had voting prolonged and the forty additional wounded were during that time.

In Tanzania, Paul Makonda, the Commissioner of Dar es Salaam, rallied citizens to spy on possible homosexuals and report their actions. Arresting was the named punishment for offenders. The Tanzanian government announced that the official was endorsing his opinions-not those of the government. Despite this, the European Union withdrew their ambassador and are rethinking their relations with Tanzania. The EU said that human rights in Tanzania are “deteriorating”-an opinion agreed on by Onesmo Olengurumwa at Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition, saying the movement destroys privacy rights. Tanzania said they will keep all agreements about human rights they partook of, and will not counter their constitution. Uganda, Tanzania’s neighbor, passed a law on homosexuality in 2014. The law began with the death sentence as punishment but was cast off later, after much disapproval.

A four-year-old in India reported raping. While in the intensive care unit for a snakebite she told her Grandmother she had been raped. Apparently, she was left alone in the ICU and a gang had raped her. India has been facing major reports of raping, gang-raping and violence against women. Due to this, they have taken up the death sentence as punishment for raping children twelve and under. Despite these measures, rape reports have been coming in consistently.

10/22/18

Today was an okay day. I learned that right now in Spanish soy esribiendo. (I am writing/typing.) Which is fun. Except for the literal writing it down part. Not so fun.

Science; Monday, October twenty-second two-thousand and eighteen. Assignment: Read six pages and answer one question. One question? Seriously!?!

10/23/18

The rental house situated across the street from “Robertson,” one of the best elementary schools in the Little Rock school system was where I spent my day. Preparing for painting, rollering the kitchen, touching up over the thin areas and spackling paste in the dining room, a bit of the trim in the living room…

In all, I used four colors of paint. Splattered myself with all of them, Scrubbed the now dry splatters off, missing some, only to be found later on exposed knees and elbows.

10/24/18

Due to the fact, no school was done yesterday, (By me at least) I had a heavier workload today. All the unnecessary subject were pulled by my compassionate teacher, enabling me to complete all work put upon me today. (I finished.)

If you couldn’t tell by the latter, I wrote an obituary today. I really thought I would hat it, but, upon finding it not a gruesome recountment of their death, or a heartbreaking wail of grief by her friends, nor an inhuman, monotonous obligation consisting of only facts, it was not so bad. I felt as if I had briefly gotten to know the person, and felt sorry she had died. May she rest in peace with her Lord.

10/25/18

Today mom told me the red line on the left side of the paper is to help you keep your writing straight. Hmmm… Interesting. I just might use that every once in a while. Maybe.

I had a quiz in math. Or a test. Or exam. Or something else. Whatever you call it, I did get an A!

10/26/18

I did something today. I’m not really sure what, but I don’t want to bother figuring it out. It’s 9:32 p.m. and I’m not done with school. I feel like school zapped my brain and it’s no longer functioning.

I did newspaper. I mean I wrote a newspaper. Well-sort of. I tried to. But it’s not done and I’ll have to finish it in the morning. Except I’m spending all day at our rental house tomorrow doing painting that needs to be done by Monday. And at our house doing all my chores. And getting ready for our cousins to visit. Is this what it feels like to be an adult? If so, I’d rather stay thirteen forever.

Many cities, including several in Arkansas; Little Rock, North Little Rock, Jonesboro, and Conway, as well as interest in 34 other states across the United States of America, are vying for two USDA branches to relocate to their city. The current branches of US Department of Agriculture set to move, rest in metropolitan Washington DC. The stated reasons for leaving were long travel times and high living costs deterring new recruits. Plans outline picking a new city by the end of this year with the move taking place sometime in 2018. The future headquarters of the Economic Research Service will be one of the branches according to the USDA. Requirements for housing the branches include how close to an airport the building is and transportation availabilities.

Sunday “shortly before 5 p.m. local time” according to The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, a train crash played out in Taiwan. The rampant train killed at least 18 people, hurting 170 more. The tragic wreck occurred on a widely traveled route from a suburb of Taipei to the city of Taitung. The Puyuma Express, one of Taiwan’s fastest trains, flew off the track while rounding a bend near one of their stations. The train, however, was not routed to stop at Hsin Ma station.